#_musings

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by kaniths, May 30, 2018.

  1. kaniths

    kaniths IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,628
    Likes Received:
    11,612
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    Source: All the Rage - explores the power of rage, a good read. There is a mention of a zen story, thought to reshare it here.

    A samurai walks up to a monk and demands him to explain heaven and hell. The monk asks why should he explain anything at all to "an idiot like him".

    The samurai is enraged, he draws his sword to slay off the monk. “That’s hell", says the monk.

    Samurai pauses, and realization dawns upon him. “That’s heaven", points out the monk.

    Moral of the story: Anger is ignorance and awareness, the antidote. #Note2Self. :blush:
     
    Gauri03 likes this.
  2. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,211
    Likes Received:
    13,034
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    Mythology soon. Here is XKCD on internal monologues based on professions,

    [​IMG]

    What's yours? : )
     
    kaniths likes this.
  3. kaniths

    kaniths IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,628
    Likes Received:
    11,612
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    All the world is a public class, drama awaits in main(); :grinning:
     
    Gauri03 likes this.
  4. kaniths

    kaniths IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,628
    Likes Received:
    11,612
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    A recent favorite...
    java20(2).png

    :lol:
     
  5. kaniths

    kaniths IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,628
    Likes Received:
    11,612
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    I made bitter gourd pitlai for lunch today and the discussion about how it's not an original Tamil cuisine came up. Popular speculation is that when Marathas conquered Tanjore kingdom and expanded their empire southwards, the migrating Maratha community (today are called the 'Tanjore Marathas') brought with them dishes like "puranpoli" (boli in Tamil) and "pitla" (pitlai), including the South's most beloved brinjal dish, "Kathirikai Rasavangi"! Likewise my another favorite "Varuthu Araicha Sambhar" is a Palakkad Keralite influence on Tamil cuisine, not very original. Sigh.

    Speaking of Sambhar, there is the evergreen argument if Sambhar is south at all. Legend is that 17th CE Tanjore Maratha Royals accidentally invented the Sambhar. The court named it "Sambhache ahar“ (Sambha's food) or “Sambhar“ after the guest of the day, Dharmaveer Chatrapathi Sambhaji, son of Shivaji. It then became a regular royal dish at the Thanjavur palace thereafter and adopted into the Tamil culture over the years.

    Kokum is a key Maharashtrian ingredient, I understand, to add a tangy sour flavor? Likewise tamarind in the south. I wonder... When it's substituted in place of Kokum, technically the dish is south isn't? And, had it been not for the tamarind, Sambhar wouldn't have happened for the Marathas. :tongueout:

    Lol, but If you trace the etymology of the word Sambar in Tamil language, it's said to have originated from the Tamil word Champaaram (சம்பாரம்) meaning “spicy condiments”.

    Screenshot_2018-10-18-14-29-15-934_org.mozilla.firefox~01.png
    Source: சம்பாரம் @ Tamil and English dictionary.

    Tamil Wiki links to an ancient Tamil document that has references to an inscription from the 15th century (before Marathas entered south provinces) which contains "Champaaram" and "Amuthu (Rice)" words as following:

    “அமுதுபடி கறியமுது பல சம்பாரம் நெய்யமுதுள்ப்பட தளிகை ஒன்றுக்கு பணம் ஒன்றாக”

    Meaning: “Cooked rice offerings, including curry rice (pepper rice or vegetable rice), many types of spiced rice (pala champaaram) and ghee rice, at the rate of one pa’nam (a denomination of money) per one portion.”

    "அமுதுபடி கறியமுது பல சம்பாரம்" (Amuthupadi kariyamudhu pala champaaram) as a 'compound phrase' could also mean vegetable rice prepared with many spices.

    In Srilankan Tamil, seems "Champal" means a paste of grounded spices (with coconut) and similarly "Sambol" in Sinhala. Also to note, South East Asian "Sambal" dishes have the same etymology too, previously discussed on IL, I think, somewhere in a Sambhar thread.

    Another theory is that Sambhar could have been part of Karnataka cuisine initially, for the word "Sambaru Padartha" in Kannada roughly translates to a “mix of spices and condiments”.

    So, Sambhar is "Simply South," I say! :grin:

    Lol. Let's talk how idlis aren't Indian at all instead! :sweatsmile:
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2018
    Gauri03 and HazelPup like this.
  6. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,211
    Likes Received:
    13,034
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    Nice research there though the conclusion is a tag firmer than the evidence would support. I'd call it inconclusive at best. :smile:

    Your phrase 'original Tamil cuisine' got me interested in tracing the history and origins of Indian food as we know it today. The word 'original' in a cultural context is an oft abused term, rife with exclusionary undertones. Frankly, I am not a fan of 'original' anything. When does something become original? Even if a Maratha king invented an early variant of sambar does that make it inauthentic? By most accounts the dish was invented in Tanjore with local ingredients. It was wholeheartedly embraced by the local populace and rejiggered into an infinite number of variations, so much so that it has become synonymous with South Indian cuisine. Shouldn't that earn it the 'original' designation? Or is something not worthy of being part of Tamil cuisine unless it was concocted by a Tamil brain, eh? : )

    Since we as a people are obsessed with our Vedic antecedents I decided to look up what our Vedic and pre-Vedic cousins dined upon. Aside from wheat and rice, barley, eggplants, and coconuts, along with most legumes and pulses are indigenous species. Excavations at Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro found clay pots containing a mixture of mung dal, rice and spices, making the mung dal khichadi at least as old as the Indus Valley Civilization. Shat pratishat original!

    What about ingredients that we love and take for granted? Tomatoes and potatoes for instance. They are central ingredients in Indian cooking. Many of the rich meat and paneer gravies that we love would be unrecognizable without tomatoes. Turns out both potatoes and tomatoes are indigenous to South America and came to India by way of Portuguese travelers in the 16th century. Is tomato thokku an original Tamil chutney then? What about tomato rasam? As a North Indian you will pry my aloo paratha from my cold dead hands! When does something become authentically Indian, or Tamil or whatever label you prefer? What is the half life of inauthenticity? Interesting quandary, ain't it?

    Did you know the dish most evocative of India in the Western psyche, Butter Chicken, is a fairly recent invention? It was created by the proprietors of the Moti Mahal restaurant in Daryaganj, Old Delhi in the 1950s. They also invented the other beloved North Indian dish, the dal makhani. Are 7 decades long enough for a dish or ingredient to work its way into the bedrock of a cuisine? In my opinion, absolutely! All it takes is one generation. Whether it is the 6000 year old mung dal khichadi or the 60 year old butter chicken, the foods that evoke feelings of nostalgia for our mothers' kitchens are our own. When and how those dishes came to be are mere technicalities.
     
    kaniths likes this.
  7. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,365
    Likes Received:
    10,561
    Trophy Points:
    438
    Gender:
    Female
    On reading details about Sambar I am reminded of rasam.
    There is a note about appointment of chief cooks in Thanjavur palace.
    People would be informed about the appointment of chief cook by Tandora. Intending candidates were listed & based on the confidential reports received from reliable sources they were shortlisted.Such candidates were asked to prepare one or two food items & finally 3 persons were shortlisted.Final selection of the candidate was done by a strange process.
    There were 3 empty tanks( Kulams) specifically constructed for the purpose & the tanks were of the size of 15 ft x15ft with a depth of 10 feet. The 3 Short listed candidates had to prepare PEPPER-CHEERAKA RASAM upto the level of 5 feet in the tank.Tamarind water, Salt, Chillies etc were to be added in the correct proportion & the RASAM had to be boiled directly under the heat of the sun for 72 hours,without being externally heated by any other method.Pepper-cheeraka- toor Dal mixture also had to be added at the appropriate intervels.
    On the 73rd hour three RASAM TASTERS of the palace tasted the rasam prepared by all the 3 shortlisted candidates & based on their recommendations ,final selection was made.
    The item is a very simple one. But the quantity was huge.Roughly the volume of RASAM to be prepared by each person was 15ftx15ftx5ft i.e 1125 cubic feet or31848.75 litres to be exact.(28.31 litres per cubic feet),nearly 3 huge lorry loads of RASAM!!
    The information finds a place in THANJAVUR ARANMANAI KURIPPUGAL published some 80 years ago.
    May be the king wanted to test their sense of CORRECT ESTIMATION, APPROXIMATION & common Sense while preparing large quantities
    during grand feasts entertaining thousands of guests.
    However certain basic doubts arise in us.
    What would happen if it started raining in the middle of the process?or the heat is not intense enough for the process?
    How they would have disposed 95000 litres of RASAM prepared on a single day?Even if all the residents of the kingdom were allowed to take the rasam in big pots,the tanks would not become empty.
    However on rethinking I thought that
    the ability to cook for large numbers
    during official feasts,religious feasts and during the days of famine,
    drought and enemy siege, has to be proved thus.
    Even today in Maariamman temples during festive feasts
    such large scale cooking takes place for 'kumbam padaiyal' a relic
    of the old tradition,perhaps.
    In war times,sieges used to last for days at a stretch.People
    will be confined to the fort.Feeding them is King's responsibility.That is why almost all temples have granneries built in the outer prakaras.
    The chieftain Paari, it seems, trained birds to bring paddy stalks
    from the fields outside the fort,to gather the paddy required during
    a siege by the great three,Chera,Chola and Pandya
    Kings.
    Among the traditional Tamil food items ,perhaps Rasam prepared on earlier days had a longer
    shelf life,esp. when kept in mud pot.Works
    like Agha Naanooru,Purapporul Venpa Maalai and others speak of the
    many and varied items of food preparations in the days yonder.
    As regards interference of rain etc. the royal astrologer has
    to fix such a day when there would be least interference by nature.
    Despite this if it rains there is always another day for the trials!
    May be irrelevant to the discussion.But I thought of sharing.

    Jayasala 42
     
    kaniths and Gauri03 like this.
  8. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,211
    Likes Received:
    13,034
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    #onlythebestwords

    book-piles.jpg

    Tsundoku

    One of the pitfalls of being a social media hermit is that by the time you run into the latest cool trend it is already on its way to dodo-land. Recently I came across a Japanese word to describe the act of buying books (any reading material really) and letting them pile up unread. As someone who has spent many an afternoon shuffling through a Barnes 'N Noble, or rummaging through library sale bins, not to mention the hundreds of forgotten books in my Kindle, I know the type all too well. Chuffed to have discovered something cool and relatable, I looked it up and discovered that the word was well past its heyday on social media. It had been a mini-phenomenon on Facebook and Instagram with people posting carefully staged pictures of color coded piles of books in the midst of quirky coffee mugs and perfectly manicured terrariums. Do people really live like that or am I the only slovenly hobo around, but I digress.

    Tsundoku. Books, books everywhere. On the vanity, under the end tables, on the window bench, in boxes hidden out of sight in the storage shed -- talk of painting a picture with a word. What a perfectly evocative expression! Book-hoarding just isn't poetic enough. If you have to have a bad habit pick one with a lyrical Japanese word to describe it. Makes all the difference I tell ya. ; )

    One account of its origins claims it all began with a pun,

    "The word dates back to the very beginning of modern Japan, the Meiji era (1868-1912) and has its origins in a pun. Tsundoku, which literally means reading pile, is written in Japanese as 積ん読. Tsunde oku means to let something pile up and is written 積んでおく. Some wag around the turn of the century swapped out that oku (おく) in tsunde oku for doku (読) – meaning to read. Then since tsunde doku is hard to say, the word got mushed together to form tsundoku."

    Another story mentions the phrase 'tsundoku sensei' from an 1879 text. Possibly a satirical appellation for a teacher who had lots of books but didn't read them.

    Well where there is a problem, trust social media to crowd source a solution. While browsing through tsundoku pictures I found tsundoku bingos. Seems promising at first glance, though after looking at few of the categories I'm not sure if this isn't more a solution in search of a problem. The idea is to score a bingo by reading an entire line of books, vertically, horizontally or diagonally. With library books sure this is a great idea, but with your own books? I can imagine some over eager caterpillar buying more books just to win one. Though I have to admit it has given me a few useful tips to make a dent in my own reading list for next year.
     
    kaniths likes this.
  9. kaniths

    kaniths IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,628
    Likes Received:
    11,612
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    It just occurred to me, what about hygiene and contamination, if the rasam was to be prepared outside, also left in the open for that long? :relaxed:

    Interesting anecdote, Thank you for sharing. Very relevant to the discussion, got me curious and I looked up to understand more. :relaxed:

    I couldn't trace a legit history to its creation. One legend has it that Rasam was discovered during the Pandiyan dynasty.

    The ruling king’s son fell ill and refused to eat anything that was fed to him. A decree was sent out that a bag of gold coins will be awarded for anyone who prepared a dish the prince would eat. A humble priest decided to participate. He got locally available spices and seasonal vegetables like lemon, curry leaves, black pepper, salt, turmeric, grounded them together and boiled the mixture in water. The prince was served this and he recovered soon, also the dish became his favorite. Thus, rasam found its way into the royal kitchens and later on a part of Indian history and cuisines.

    The story doesn't mention tomatoes, chillies, tamarind and other spice ingredients which probably found their way to India during colonial times indeed.
    The curious case of Mulligatawny Soup. *

    The simple rasam has since then evolved to incorporate rich flavors, tastes, preferences, and cultural differences. Aside from being a traditional dish, passed on to generations, its ingredients are said to have medicinal values, which makes rasam, a 'functional' food as well.

    Nutritional value of Rasam:
    tab1.png

    Health effects of spices used:
    tab0.jpg
    Source: A Comprehensive Review on Rasam.

    Ras in Sanskrit (रस) translates to "juice, essence or taste". In Ayurveda, 'Rasa' has a larger context than just taste.

    A Rasa is a “knowledge perceived through Rasanā Indriya (gustatory sensation) located at Jihvā (tongue).”

    And the Rasas are of 6 types, specifically:
    Sweet (Madhura),
    Acid (Amla),
    Saline (Havana),
    Pungent (Katuka),
    Bitter (Tikta),
    and Astringent (Kashāya).


    That's 63 different combinations again! Cool! :hearteyes:

    "Rasa has been used to guide the nourishment of the body. A diet comprising of all the six rasas is said to be the ideal one, indicating that all components required for a living system can be incorporated under the six rasas. A living system is under the control of a diet, which in turn is under control of the six rasas."
    Source: The scientific basis of rasa (taste).

    Interesting. Apart from being go-to comfort food, as an integral part of everyday South Indian meals, on the menus for festivals, special occasions, family and social gatherings, Rasam finds it's place as a heritage food too. This brought my thoughts back to...

    What is it with traditional foods and the (nostalgic) sense of feeling home? Or how to explain the (collective)(socio-cultural)(intimate, individual and personal) emotions of sovereignty, shared identity, and ethnic affiliations, some specific foods tend to evoke in our minds? Relevance and importance of these sentiments in modern, diverse, trans-national, multi-cuisine landscape? *

    Very enlightening exploration, made me (re)evaluate the meaning of "ethnic" and "original" in food context; (re)learn the interpretation of food as cultural "identity" and "heritage"; (re)examine the relationship between food heritage and cultural identities; question the influence/involvement of socio-political and economic ideologies/players in defining the same and constructing food narratives; understand the underlying food politics. Thank you. :blush:

    * #FoodMusings to be continued...! :innocent:
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2018
    Gauri03 likes this.
  10. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,211
    Likes Received:
    13,034
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Gender:
    Female
    #coolchristmastraditions

    Jólabókaflóð,(yo-la-bok-a-flot): Yule Book Flood

    It's not often you come across a holiday tradition that encompasses all your loves into one pleasurable family activity. If spending a cozy evening with your family and reading your favorite books at the same time sounds like a tradition you needed in your life last year, then this is the one for you -- the jolabokflod. The Yule book flood is the Icelandic tradition of exchanging books with your family members and spending Christmas Eve reading them, preferably curled up in front of a fire with a mug of hot chocolate. The jolabokflod is said to have started around the time of the second world war when rationing was at its peak and paper was the only cheap commodity available. Icelandic book publishers used to flood the market with new publications around the end of the year, and people loved buying books for their loved ones as Christmas presents. The tradition became part of Icelandic culture and thanks to social media is growing in popularity around the world. Even today the majority of books sold in Iceland are sold in the final months of the year. Here's a nice article if you want to read more -- The beautiful Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve

    We haven't bought new books for Christmas but thanks to my tsundoku affliction we are spoiled for choice. The fire lit, and the books picked, let the family reading begin. : )
     
    kaniths likes this.

Share This Page